Vegetable Pancakes, The Forever Story

This is a post to express how much I adore vegetable pancakes. It started with this homestyle romance of sitting at the table for breakfast, and hearing my dad complain and bang around the kitchen that for one of the few times in his life- he was making breakfast.

With him, it was a 50/50 choice of either Waffles or Potato Pancakes. For the said theme of today, we’re going to stick to the potato pancake side of things. They were softer, not too crunchy and spread large- almost hand-wide in scale (if that makes any sense). Serve with sour cream, and salted dill (a common condiment in the house- fresh vibrant dill, processed with salt to create a constant topping+ stayed green for as long last it lasted). It was always a treat, and stacks were always needed.

Fast forward to growing up, I started making breakfast more. My base were the potato pancakes of my dad. Good sure, but I was convinced I could make them better (i wanted them crunchier and a bit less wet). This lead me into the direction of more of a Latke- potato and onion, lightly salted, and squeezed dry in a kitchen towel. Followed by just enough flour and egg to have a slightly stuck together mash that would then be fried. Served with the similar condiments of salted dill, sour cream and an added bit of applesauce. Below is a picture of Latkes, served with an egg and rosemary blooms.

Corn pancakes soon followed- I considered this was me wanting to become fancier and wanting to give into the fact that i could eat cornbread almost everyday of the week. The resulting pancake was a cornbread-ish batter, with bounties of fresh/frozen corn dotted within. Super satisfying and it was something the family could eat either sweet or savoury. Still today, they stand as a quick food and I highly recommend.

As life does, I continued expanding the joys of what I could make in pancake form. Getting bored of potatoes and corn, the new fascination of Korean food soon filled my life- you soon discover that Pajeon is a big part of their cuisine and butt easy to make. Green onion is the base, and you create a simple flour/water/sometimes egg batter to pour over and fry with. Fry both sides, and flip out to a cutting board- to cut into small squares and dip into a sauce. It’s easily one of my favourite at home lunches. You can expand pajeon to have kimchi, seafood and whatever else your little heart desires.

Below is a picture of the pajeon-style pancake, served with a variety of veg (just to make sure my quiet life couldn’t be boring) : Radish, Green Onion and Cabbage/Kimchi.

The basic recipe used above goes as such:

Pajeon a-la Sarah, Makes 3 the size of my hand.

Roughly half cup of flour, and in this tea cup that you’re measuring the flour with- crack an egg and whisk well. Fill the rest of the cup up with ice water (or as cold as the tap may give you) and a good heavy pinch of salt. Whisk into the flour and set aside.

Prep your veggies, for this case I quickly sliced thinly 3 average size radishes, a small chunk of cabbage and roughly diced green onion. Lastly, I scooped out a good two tablespoons of kimchi, and chopped finely.

On medium heat, grease the pan with a brush and oil- and choose your vegetable and place in first. Spread out as evenly as you can on bottom of pan, and proceed to pour one third of the batter over top. Use your crepe making skills here, and holding the handle- swirl the pan around to make sure the entirety of the bottom is cooked. Let cook for a few minutes, and flip. Follow with the next two pancakes.

Flip out to cutting board, cut into manageable pieces and enjoy.

I mentioned before there is a dipping sauce I regularly use. It varies on the day, but a popular mixture is soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil and maybe gochujang (a popular fermented soy, rice and hot pepper condiment from Korea).

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So here’s to you pancake gods, and whereever else you may want to take my young soul to.